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Healthy Skin and Eyes Program

Program Coordinator : Kath Desmyth
P: 08 8971 9355 | E: kath.desmyth@kwhb.com.au

ARTICLE: A Regional Initiative to Reduce Skin Infections in Aboriginal Children Living in Remote Communities  

 

Working in a similar area as Environmental health, Kath Desmyth is bringing her experience as Health Centre Coordinator in Lajamnu, and as a remote area nurse, in attempting to negate the devastating effects of skin diseases and eye complaints that hamper many community members in the Katherine West region.

 

Kath’s role is new to Katherine West, and she is currently working on a health promotional framework for bringing skin and eye health into the everyday targets that we strive for in our communities.

 

The importance of healthy skin

One of the programmes currently run by the Menzies School of Health Research is called “Healthy Skin” and the main aim is to reduce the prevalence of scabies and skin sores among people living in remote Aboriginal communities. Until recently, skin diseases in Aboriginal communities have been overlooked because of other health priorities. When it was discovered that the prevalence of scabies in preschool children could be as high as 70%,3 however, there was widespread agreement locally that something had to be done.

 

The scabies mite burrows under the skin and breeds, causing itching and eventually open skin lesions. These sores often become infected with group A streptococcus—a group of bacteria that thrive in the tropical environment of the Northern Territory and cause a range of diseases including rheumatic fever and glomerulonephritis (major heart and kidney diseases, respectively).4

 

The Healthy Skin Program team is endeavouring to reduce scabies and skin sores by taking a regional approach to tackling the problem. Instead of treating one Aboriginal community at a time, the plan is to provide treatment to five communities simultaneously. The reason for this is that Aboriginal communities are highly mobile and families may visit relatives for months at a time, thus facilitating the spread of infectious diseases.

 

National Trachoma and Eye Health Program

Implemented by Fred Hollows in 1976

Improving eye health in remote communities

 

In the late 1960s Fred Hollows was working in Sydney as an ophthalmologist. One day he attended a talk about the struggles of the Gurindji workers at Wave Hill cattle station in the Northern Territory. After meeting some of the members of the community, he was invited to visit their home and examine the eye health of the people living there. He found that there was very poor eye health across the community, and there were no appropriate medical services to address the problems. Conditions existed in the Aboriginal community that had not been seen in Western society for generations, the most serious being trachoma.

 

On returning to Sydney, Hollows spoke out about differences between medical services in the city and the outback, and the discrepancy in eye health between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. He became active in promoting Aboriginal health and helped to set up the first Aboriginal Medical Service in Redfern in 1971. This service became a model for Aboriginal Medical Centres around the country.

 

In 1975, Health Department workers Gordon Briscoe and ‘Pip’ Ivil approached Fred to discuss what could be done to improve Aboriginal eye health. After initial discussions they approached the government for funding and formed the National Trachoma and Eye Health Program. The Commonwealth government provided $1.4 million to the Royal Australian College of Ophthalmologists to run the program. The aim was to eliminate trachoma in Aboriginal people and screen, diagnose and treat eye diseases throughout rural Australia.

 

The program involved several teams in four wheel drive vehicles and army tents travelling the country, examining and treating eye problems in the Aboriginal community. Each team employed Aboriginal liaison officers to visit communities and discuss the program with local residents. Eye examinations were carried out, treatments were given and the records of the examination were left with the community. Such a large-scale system to provide specialist health services to remote areas of Australia had not been achieved before.

 

From 1976 to 1978 the teams screened over 100 000 people (60% of whom were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people) in rural and remote areas of Australia. Similar programs continued in various forms run by Commonwealth, state and regional organisations. As a result the number of Indigenous people suffering curable blindness was halved. Fred Hollows went on to create international programs to treat cataract blindness by training surgeons and producing lenses cheaply.